Winds power local project

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

— When Nathan Wilson opens his front door and feels the wind in his face, he’s not just enjoying the weather; he feels opportunity.

Wilson is the developer for the Winds of Change Red Barn Energy Project, located between Decatur and Gentry. When it is completed, the community wind project will have eight wind turbines and produce 20 megawatts of electricity annually.

On Saturday morning, Wilson gave a report of his progress over the past year to landowners and investors. Wilson has been using a Sodar device to track wind speeds since August. The results show there is even more wind than expected in the area between Decatur and Gentry - one of the windiest areas in the state according, to Wilson’s studies.

Wind speeds were initially predicted to average 7.4 meters per second, but they averaged 7.8 meters per second or about 20 miles per hour.

Although the increase may seem insignificant, each percentage point represents an exponential increase in energy, Wilson explained.

“That means its going to make a lot more money,” he said.

If the eight wind turbines Wilson is planning were already in place, they would have made $367,000 in August and September, $350,000 in December and January and closer to $400,000 in March, according to the data collected from the Sodar machine.

“I feel this wind blowing out my front door everyday. It’s like money we’re throwing away (in lost opportunity),” Wilson said.

A wind farm in northwest Arkansas could be produce more energy than one in western Kansas, Wilson said. Even though wind speeds are not as high in Arkansas, the wind blows at a much steadier rate. It takes a lot of energy to start the turbines turning, but it doesn’t take much to keep them running, he said.

Based on data from the Sodar device, Wilson estimated the wind farm will be producing electricity about 97 percent of the time.

Wilson has signed leases with local landowners who have agreed to have turbines built on their property. Landowners can continue to cut hay or run cattle on their land. Each turbine needs about 20 acres to operate, but only takes up an area 40 feet in diameter under ground and 18 feet in diameter above ground. The rotor is 90 meters or 295 feet in diameter, and the rotors need about seven rotor diameters of space from front to back and 10 rotor diameters from side to side to operate at an optimum level, Wilson said.

Wind turbines could be put in place as soon as September if all goes well, Wilson said. He is currently looking for more investors to help move forward with the project.

The cost projections for the project are a little less than $40 million and will require $28 million in cash from investors, along with $12 million in federal funds, according the project’s Web site at www.windsofchangeit.com.

In April, Wilson hopes to begin a transmission study to see if the existing power lines will be able to carry the electricity generated by the farm to where it is needed. The study will bedone in three phases and will cost more than $70,000.

Government grants will pay for a third of the project, giving the return on investment a big boost, Wilson said. Most wind farm investors are from foreign countries like China because the government grants in the United States make wind farm investments very attractive, he said.

Wilson has a different vision for his company. He wants local investors and the northwest Arkansas community to profit from the Red Barn Energy Project.

Wind energy offers several advantages. There is no need to worry about the price of the raw material going up, as with oiland coal, and the price for power will be set in an agreement before the facility is ever built, said Richard Wilson, Nathan Wilson’s father and an investor in the company.

“Our raw material is free,” he said.

For more information on the Winds of Change Red Barn Energy Project, visit www.windsofchangeit.

com.

News, Pages 1 on 03/24/2010